Siem Reap police have closed an investigation into the death of Sam Veasna, a Siem Reap forestry official who contracted cerebral malaria and was suspected of taking fake malaria drugs.
Sam Veasna, who died in December, was credited with spearheading most of the wildlife conservation efforts in northern Cambodia. He contracted cerebral malaria while searching for a rare wild cow in Anlong Veng.
Kea Yada, the 26-year-old wife of Sam Veasna, said Tuesday she filed a complaint with local police, accusing the doctor who treated her husband of neglect.
“He ignored follow-up treatment and sometimes asked me to treat my husband,” said Kea Yada, who said she had no medical training.
A letter signed by five of Sam Veasna’s friends who work on wildlife and environmental issues said “subsequent discussions with medical sources, indicate to us that the inadvertent use of [fake] malaria drugs may have been the ultimate cause of Sam Veasna’s demise.”
But Lon Deka, Siem Reap’s petty crime police chief, said authorities found no conclusive evidence against the doctor, and the case with that conclusion will be sent to the courts shortly.
“I questioned the doctor but he said he was not guilty and that he tried his best to treat the patient,” Lon Deka said.
In mid-October, the European Commission’s Malaria Control Program discovered that fake malaria drugs were being sold on the market. The drugs were being passed off as Mefloquine and Artesunate, two of the most popular drugs to treat the mosquito-borne disease in Cambodia.
Dr Mey Bouth Denis, co-director of the EC Malaria Control office in Cambodia, said the government has not been successful in getting the fake drugs off the market since the discovery was made last year. “In some places there are still problems and markets are still selling fake drugs to the poor,” he said.
He wants the government to conduct a survey to find out how many markets and stores sell the fake drugs. He said the government also has to continue its media campaign to inform the public of the fake drugs.
